Amity studied the textures of her ceiling, feeling a strange combination of worry and utter boredom. Her head swirled with thoughts about yesterday's events. She knew being friends – just pure, wholesome, s̶a̶p̶p̶h̶i̶c̶ platonic friends – with a human could rub her parents the wrong way, but a human who defied Belos is a whole new can of worms. This combined with the dullness of spending days bedridden with a broken leg left Amity desperate for any kind of distraction. Thankfully, Amity's prayers were answered with three soft knocks at her door.
"Hello?!" Amity gleefully shouted, before quietly regaining her composure, "Uh, I mean, um… come in."
"Amity?" a gentle voice called as the door slowly opened. Two figures entered the room, and once through the opened door Amity could make out that it was Willow and Gus.
"Willow?" Amity nervously whispered, "Shut the door! How did you two get in here? My parents will kill me if…"
"Yeah, Gus took care of that." Willow interrupted, "We snuck in through the bathroom window."
"There's an illusion of Principal Bump in the living room." Gus explained, "He's telling your parents…"
"Edric! Emira!" Odalia's voiced screamed from the distance, "Living room, now!"
"…he's telling your parents that they embezzled school funds." Gus resumed in a whisper, "Rich kids can get away with almost anything, but when it comes to stealing from other rich people, all bets are off!"
"Gus, while that is one of the funniest things I have ever heard, I feel like you're forgetting that my siblings are on the Illusion Track!" Amity said, "They'll be able to spot…"
"Oh, I thought of that." Gus interrupted, "I made a second invisible Bump in case they catch on. If they dispel the other Bump, he'll be all 'Oh, no! The twins turned me invisible! What is wrong with them!' Wanna listen in?"
"Please!" Amity enthusiastically – albeit still quietly – answered. She motioned to the end of her bed, where Willow and Gus took a seat to listen in on the Blight family drama.
"I cannot believe you two would stoop so low as to…" Odalia began.
"Mom, please." Emira interrupted, "That's not the principal, look…"
The conversation came to a sudden holt as a sudden rumble shook then entirety of Blight Manor.
"What… what was that?" Amity nervously asked the duo sitting on the bed.
Without a word, Willow and Gus made their way to the windows behind Amity's bed, trying to find what caused the sudden commotion. They could see a few damaged buildings and clouds of rubble and dust but struggled to locate a source to the destruction. Willow followed the path of damaged and destroyed buildings, before eventually ending up on a building on the outskirts of town, with a large hole covering where the front door once stood.
"Oh no…" Willowed mumbled, "Gus, come take a look at this." She continued, gesturing towards Gus. He joined her at the window, and Willow drew his attention to the damaged Owl House.
"What is it?" Amity desperately asks, trying to find a way to see outside while stuck to the bed, "Is everything okay?"
"That's… a definite no." Gus bluntly replied.
"Gus!" Willow snarled, gently elbowing his side, "Something up at the Owl House. We need to see what's going on."
"Oh no. No no no no no!" Amity replied, "If Luz is in trouble I am coming with you!" Amity began to attempt to make her way off the bed, "I had to sit here and watch helplessly as everything went down with the Emperor, and now…" Amity stopped. After releasing her cast-covered leg from the bed, she fell face-first onto the floor in an attempt to stand up.
"Uh, Amity…" Gus began, "Why exactly are you so keen on helping out Luz?"
"Mmm hm hmph mhm mmm!" Amity muttered through the floorboards.
"Did somebody hear a thud?" Odalia asked from the living room, "It sounded like it came from Amity's room. Alador, go check on her."
"Yes, dear." Alador indifferently replied like a lover that had just kind of mentally checked out of the relationship twenty years ago.
"Ugh, we don't have time for this!" a frustrated Willowed grunted. She pointed towards a small houseplant on a bedside table and cast a circle. Shortly after a long, rope like vine sprouted from the soil, growing several feet long. Willow ripped the vine from its roots. She then picked up Amity and held her to her back, tying the vine around her waist and shoulders.
"I can take Amity, Gus. I need you to make a distraction."
"On it!" Gus enthusiastically replied, casting a circle in the general direction on the living room.
Meanwhile, in the living room of Blight Manor…
"Amity?" Alador boorishly called out towards his daughter's bedroom, "Is everything okay? We heard a…"
Alador suddenly stopped as an audible "poof" came from the living room. He hastily turned around and saw a cloud obscuring the entire room. As the dust settled, he noticed his family – looking just as confused as he was. Hieronymus Bump seemed to have vanished, until the last bits of the magic cloud had cleared. On the floor was an infant, sporting the same devilish mask Bump used to conceal his face.
"I'm Baby Bump, and I've got wheels for hands! WEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
The infant shrieked in joy as it suddenly sped through the living room and right out of the front door, leaving nothing but a cloud of smoke. The Blight clan could do nothing but stare in shock as they tried to comprehend what they had just witnessed.
Meanwhile, just outside of Amity's bedroom…
Once they had jumped outside through the bedroom window, Willow cast another circle on the ground. A large root swelled from beneath the soil and snaked downhill towards the center of town, where it appeared most of the damage was occurring. Gus sat atop the vine, followed shortly by willow.
"Hold on, Amity." Willow sternly told the friend at her back.
Amity tightly wrapped her arms around Willow. Willow and Gus kicked against the dirt and soon found themselves briskly sliding down the vine towards town. Amity held firmly onto her friend, as the duo seemed relative unphased by their speedy descent into the center of this violent kerfuffle. Gus and Willow both stood up from the root, prepared to survey the area.
"Ehehehe… oh, uh… that happened." Amity mumbled in a clear state of shock.
"Amity, are you alright?" Willow asked, attempting to look over her shoulder.
"Mommy, I don't want to be on the Boiling Isles anymore…" she murmured in a dazed confusion.
"Eh, she's fine." Gus hastily concluded, "Come on, Willow, we need to find out what's…"
Gus stopped as the crack of shattering stone filled the air. A cloud of dust obscured the group's vision, but through the mist they could spot a gargantuan silhouette ominously approaching.
"WUTZ DIS?" a deep, rage-fueled voiced inquired.
A thunderous boom followed every step the giant took. The trio slowly backed away defensively, but soon the giant cleared through the dust and debris. The group saw an armored figure with fiery eyes filled with hatred. In his right hand was an intricately crafted hammer, and a small figure was being tightly held under his left arm.
"Wait, is that…" Willow started as the last bits of dust finally settled, "Luz?!"
"Wait, what?!" Amity asked, managing to shake off her befuddled state.
Luz, despite being locked in the giant's tight embraced, resisted fiercely. She pounded her fists against the giant's cuirass, desperately trying to escape.
"Vulkan!" she cried, continuing to protest, "Let! Me! Go!"
"AHAHAHA! DON'T GO WORRYIN' 'BOUT DAT, 'UMIE!" Vulkan replied with sadistic glee, "YOU'Z GONNA BE GOOD 'N SAFE ONCE DEEZ AELDARI GITZ IZ TAKEN CARE UV!"
Gus wordless summoned several fake copies of himself to distract Vulkan. The giant began wildly swinging his hammer at the ground in response, his rage seemingly growing with each illusion that dissipated with his attacks.
"WUTZ DIS ZOGGIN' SQUIG-FILTH? GET OUT 'ERE FOR A PROPA KRUMPIN'!" Vulkan angrily demanded, violently smashing Gus's illusions with his massive Warhammer™.
"Hey, guys?" Gus said, furiously casting circles to create more illusions, "I don't think I can keep up! He's taking out my doubles faster than I can…"
Gus suddenly notice Vulkan's affixed gaze, realizing that talking probably did a good job outing himself as the genuine article.
"AHAHAHA, DER YA IZ, YA ELFY GIT!" Vulkan gleefully said, swinging his hammer in Gus's direction. His attack was stopped, however, as Willow summoned a cluster of vines to grasp his hammer at his head.
"Luz, hurry!" Willow cried, utilizing all of her strength to keep Vulkan's weapon restrained, "Get away from him! We can hold him off for a little while!"
Luz, however, seemed to ignore Willow's plea. She looked to be completely lost in thought, staring blankly at the ground and scratching her chin.
"Uh, Luz?" Willow asked, seeing the fibers of her vines begin to snap from Vulkan's strength, "We kind of need you to hurry up!"
"Wait…" Luz murmured to herself, "Elfy… Elfy? Vulkan!" she cried, grabbing the giant's massive pauldron, "Vulkan, do you think that these people are elves?"
"FINK?" Vulkan incredulously asked, snapping his gaze towards Luz, "JUST LOOK AT DEM KNIFEY-HEARY-BITZ! 'COURSE DEY ELVES!"
"Wait, no! NO!" Luz desperately pleaded, waving her arms to keep Vulkan's attention, "These people are not elves, they're witches and they don't all look like this! Heck, lots of them don't even have ears! One's got a moon for a head, one's got an eye for a head, and I even met one that's a dog! They just have a special gland that lets them conduct magic!"
Vulkan suddenly froze. His stature grew so stiff that Luz was easily able to slip from his grasp, hitting the ground with a hard thud.
"Luz!" Amity called out, "Luz, are you okay?" Amity then paused and tapped Willow's shoulder, "Willow, uh, not to be a pain, but could you head over to Luz?"
Willow let out a deep sigh and headed towards their friend. Gus also joined the trio, helping Luz back onto her feet.
"I am so sorry," Luz lamented, "I just met this guy yesterday. He's normally so nice but… I don't know, something got him really worked up back at Eda's place and he just went berserk!"
The group looked up at Vulkan, who continued to stand unmoving, staring blankly into the distance.
"Moon-head…" Vulkan muttered, his hands clasping his temples, "Eye-head…" he said, suddenly starting to shake… "Magic… dog… person?" Vulkan began to nervously look around the down square at the destruction he had caused. His gaze then shifted to Luz and her friends, his eyes rapidly snapping between each individual member of the group.
"Dohohohoho!" the giant guffawed, breaking from his orkish demeanor, "I understand now! You are not a bunch of filthy, child-eating xenos, just a community of abhuman psykers! Luz, please forgive my outburst. If these mutated monstrosities are friends of yours, then they can count themselves as friends of mine!"
Vulkan wrapped his arms around the group tightly clasped them in a joyful hug.
"Luz…" Willow wheezed, "Can't… breathe…"
"Luz…" Amity said, desperately reaching out to her friend from behind Willow, "The pressure is… really doing no favors for my leg."
"Vulkan…" Luz gasped, desperately pounding her fists against the giant's arm, "Vulkan, please loosen up with the hugs."
"Dohohohoho, not to worry, friends, my hugs are legendary through the galaxy for the loving and compassionate power!" Vulkan jovially said as his grip tightened. A sudden crunching sound could be heard by the group as Vulkan's deadly huggies increased the pressure on Amity's leg.
"GAH!" Amity cried, her eyes faintly glowing. Willow, Gus, and Luz noticed a pile of purple goo accumulating on the ground beside them.
"Vulkan…" Luz begged with the last of her breath, "I mean it, Vulkan, please put us down!"
"Why would I do that?" Vulkan obliviously asked, "I want to show just how much I love my dear friends! Besides, I've got NINE-MILLION MORE 'UGZ TA GIVE YA! NOW C'MERE YA GITZ!"
Vulkan laughed wildly as his grip tightened further, generating another sickening crunch from Amity.
"Seriously, Vulkan, I mean it I… AAAAAAAAGH!" Amity painfully cried, the once faint glow of her eyes turning to an intense, violent amethyst.
The pile of goo on the ground slowly formed into a basic abomination, but more purple goo began to rise from the soil. As Amity continued to cry in agonizing pain, more goo fed the abomination. In no time at all it surpassed the height of Vulkan, growing in size and bulk until it neared three stories. The pool of goo dried up, and the abomination let out a guttural growl as it raised its fist.
"Dohohohoho!" Vulkan howled before an instinctive twinge caught his attention. He looked upwards and saw the massive abomination's fist flying towards him.
"OH ZOG!" Vulkan shouted just before the abomination struck his face. The young witches fell to the ground as Vulkan's body went limp and hurdled into the air. Willow strategically cast a circle towards the grounds, allowing her and the traumatized Amity to fall into a soft chrysanthemum bush. The glow from Amity's eyes rapidly dissipated, and her abomination dissolved into the ground.
"Phew!" an exhausted Luz sighed, brushing the dirt off of her clothes, "Well, I have no clue what just happened, but at least we're all…"
Luz stopped as she saw the spot where Vulkan had landed. The abomination's strike had not sent him far, as he had crashed full force into a small shop. His massive size combined with the speed he was thrown at cause him to burst through the wall. The force was apparently enough for a long piece of rebar to pierce clean through his armor, sticking out through his chest.
"Uh…" Vulkan mumbled as he noticed the metal beam jutting through his torso with his last bits of consciousness, "Hello… darkness… my old…"
Before Vulkan could finish his statement, he let out a rattle as the last bits of life left his body.